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A high-stakes legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map was engulfed in chaos late Tuesday after the US Supreme Court and a lower federal court issued conflicting decisions on whether the state can use aggressively gerrymandered district lines that Republicans drew last year at the behest of President Donald Trump.
US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee, issued an order rejecting Missouri’s emergency effort to uphold the GOP-drawn map, which was used during the state’s primary but has faced challenges from advocacy organizations and voters who say it is an “unconstitutional power grab.” But in a parallel case, Trump-appointed District Judge Stephen Clark ruled that Missouri cannot revert to its old maps for the November midterms, a win for state Republicans who sued to keep the gerrymandered districts in place.
“Missourians deserve better than this Republican chaos. Plain and simple,” the Missouri Democratic Party said in response to the court rulings. Clark’s decision has been appealed to the 8th Circuit.
Late last year, more than 300,000 Missouri voters signed a petition aimed at forcing a November ballot referendum on the new gerrymandered map, which carved up the Kansas City district of Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Missouri’s Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins refused to add the referendum to the ballot, but the Missouri Supreme Court ruled last week that the referendum push was legal, retroactively freezing the new maps until voters get a say in November.
“Here’s what we know right now: The referendum where voters get to decide the fate of this map IS on your ballot,” said local reporter Mark Maxwell. “What we still don’t know for sure: which district you vote in. Watch the appeals court tonight/tomorrow.”
Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement late Tuesday that “the Missouri constitution is clear, as was the Missouri Supreme Court.”
“Over 305,000 Missouri voters, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, took action to block this political power grab last fall,” he added.
People Not Politicians, which sponsored the referendum petition, “filed a request Tuesday night with the state Supreme Court to hold Hoskins in contempt for attempting to use the new map,” The Associated Press reported.
“An individual federal judge cannot overrule the Missouri Supreme Court,” attorney Chuck Hatfield, who represents People Not Politicians, told AP.
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